Yvonne Berkle, Johanna Woll & Kathrin Kilian

The foundation for a successful degree programme is not only laid when you start studying, but also during the orientation phase. Finding the ‘right’ degree programme, i.e. one that suits you personally, is an influential factor. The degree of fit between personal interest and competence profile and the degree programme offered - the person-environment fit - is related to a variety of factors that are also associated with student success or dropping out of a degree programme, such as study satisfaction, frustration, duration of studies and performance (cf. e.g. Hasenberg & Stoll, 2015). In order to increase student success, many universities therefore offer internet-based self-tests, so-called Online Study Choice Assistants (OSA), to check the person-environment fit in relation to the study programme. While OSAs designed as assessments, which recommend specific degree programmes that are a good match for the individual's interests and skills profile, offer an important initial orientation aid, OSAs in the form of expectation checks are suitable for initiating self-reflection processes regarding one's own interests and expectations in relation to a selected degree programme (cf. e.g. Hasenberg et al., 2014; Störk & Mocigemba, 2013). In the ‘Increasing student success’ project at the University of Apllied Science Kaiserslautern, an OSA concept or expectation check was therefore developed, which encourages self-reflection among prospective students with regard to their ideas and expectations and thus also increases the level of information about a degree programme. In order to make it easy to reach the target group, this service is to be integrated directly into the degree programme website. By answering questions in the form of interactive feedback elements, the focus of attention of prospective students should be directed to aspects of the respective degree programme that are critical to success and typical misconceptions should be clarified. In addition, the integration of multimedia elements is planned, which serve to reduce distance and shyness as well as to address the target group in an authentic way. The implementation and evaluation of this concept is currently planned in a pilot degree programme.

Literature

Hasenberg, S., Guttschick, K., Schmidt-Atzert, L., Stemmler, G., Kohlhaas, G., Schütz, M. & Prüssner, M. (2014). Unterstützung beim Übergang von der Schule zur Hochschule durch präzise Studieninformationen und Online-Self-Assessments. Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung, 9(5), 115–129.

Hasenberg, S., & Stoll, G. (2015). Erwartungschecks in Self-Assessments: Zur Erfassung und Korrektur von Studienerwartungen. Das Hochschulwesen, 3(4), 104–108.

Störk, L., & Mocigemba, D. (2013). Kommunizieren statt Testen. Die Online–Studienwahl–Assistenten der Universität Freiburg. In C. Bremer &  D. Krömker (Hrsg.), E-Learning zwischen Vision und Alltag: Zum Stand der Dinge (S. 230–240). Münster: Waxmann.